BTN Reveals Strategy to Accelerate Housing Credit Disbursement for Low-Income Groups

PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk (BTN), focused on housing finance, has disbursed 6 million housing loans to decile 3 households. Various strategies are being implemented to accelerate housing credit disbursement.

Decile 3 refers to the segment of the population ranked 21% to 30% in terms of the lowest national welfare levels. In government assistance programmes, this group is classified as near-poor.

‘For decile 3, BTN’s subsidised housing loans have reached 6 million units since the programme began,’ said Nixon LP Napitupulu, BTN’s President Director, at the Jogja Financial Festival at Jogja Expo Center (JEC) in Yogyakarta.

According to Nixon, BTN’s two main strategies for housing credit are subsidised mortgage programmes and self-help housing assistance for the lowest-income groups. The subsidised KPR is designed for households with specific income ceilings to target low-income groups (MBR).

For decile 1 and 2 households, deemed unable to access bank credit, the government provides Self-Help Housing Assistance (BSPS).

‘KPR is supported by the government. The government has created subsidised KPR programmes with maximum income limits to target low-income households, many of whom are unbanked. With 10 deciles, the most challenging are deciles 1 and 2, while deciles 3 to 8 are covered by KPR,’ he explained.

This year, Nixon stated, the BSPS programme aims to assist approximately 400,000 households nationwide. ‘For deciles 1 and 2, the government provides BSPS assistance for self-help housing construction, allocating between Rp20-25 million per household this year,’ he added.

Nixon also noted that the government is currently reviewing a mortgage tenure of up to 40 years, aiming to expand access for low-income groups. ‘The government is considering a 40-year KPR tenure to enable deciles 1 and 2 to qualify. This is a strategy to penetrate the MBR market,’ he said.

Beyond housing finance, BTN is also relying on digitalisation to reach communities not yet served by banking finance access. Nixon highlighted that mobile phone penetration in Indonesia currently far exceeds bank account ownership.